Mistletoe and Mittens
by fictionalcandie
Summary: Lily's first two Christmas presents of her 7th year are not at all what or even from whom! she would have expected. Oneshot.


**Disclaimer:** I don't own these characters, or the locations. I do not own mistletoe, either, or James or Sirius. This is all terribly upsetting.

**Author's Notes:** Written as a Christmas present for Manda. Slightly connected to the last fic that I wrote her, _Snow Balls_. While not precisely a sequel to that fic, they're definitely connected, and it might help make sense of a few things if you read that first. It's not necessary, of course, but what would it hurt?

Review, please!

**o.o.o.o**

Lily Evans was surprised when Sirius Black came up to her in the middle of an empty corridor somewhere on the fourth floor, while she was on her way back to the Tower after dinner. But she was even more surprised when, as the windows along the side of the hallway bathed them both in ruddy light from the setting sun, he cleared his throat and awkwardly thrust a small package, wrapped in shiny gold gift-paper and tied with a black ribbon, into her hands.

She'd noticed him lurking at the far end of the corridor, of course, but hadn't suspected that he could possibly have been waiting for _her_. Especially not since he'd seemed quite fixed to his spot, until he'd glanced up from staring at his shoes and then _paled_ when he noticed her approaching.

"What's this?" she asked, eyeing the package warily, but not without curiosity. It was still a week before Christmas, so even if they'd actually been friends, instead of just sometimes-enemies who'd had fun together in the snow a few days ago, it still would have been too early for Black to have--

"My Christmas present to you," he answered, clearing his throat.

"You got me a Christmas present?" exclaimed Lily, her voice skeptical. Her eyes were wide and her mouth was hanging open slightly, clearly surprised.

"Yeah," said Black, looking around and shuffling his feet, uncharacteristically nervous.

Seeing his discomfort, Lily _tried_ to keep the suspicion out of her voice as she demanded, "But-- _why_?"

Black sighed and scratched the back of his head, still not meeting her eyes. "Because I-- look, just-- just open it, all right? Or-- or don't."

Then he turned on his heel and ran away, before she could ask any more questions. Lily stared after him for a few moments, then transferred her incredulous expression back to the wrapped gift he'd shoved into her hands.

After a moment of intense consideration, Lily reluctantly decided that if it was some kind of prank, Black would have wanted to stay and watch her open it, instead of running off -- which, while it was some comfort, left her with the unsettling thought that he'd actually gotten her a real present, which she had absolutely no idea what to make of.

She dropped the package into her book bag and wandered off to find something to distract her from the strangeness of her day so far. Since Sirius had gone in the direction of the Tower, she veered off-course herself, and headed toward the library. She had some reading she wanted to get done before she went home for the holidays, anyway, and she might as well do it _now_.

Even though she was fairly certain she wouldn't be able to concentrate long enough to get two words read, much less the two chapters she had in mind. Really Black should try not to be so confusing -- and he should probably at least _attempt_ to prevent his best friend from giving Lily those amazing, absolutely nerve-rattling smiles while she was trying to eat, instead of being far away from the carnage as he had been at the most recent meal.

Honestly. Didn't Black need to eat, too?

The library, when she reached it, appeared to be deserted -- even the librarian wasn't in attendance, which would have been supremely odd if it weren't still dinnertime. Lily took a seat in one of the corners, setting her book bag on the table in front of her. She could see the outline of Black's present through the fabric.

She should probably just open it and satisfy her curiosity. After all, it was rather small, wasn't it? It couldn't be too bad, could it? Best just to get it over with, right?

Lily had the package out, the ribbon untied, and the shiny wrapping off almost before her decision to open the gift had registered. She smiled inwardly, and pushed the crinkled paper aside to reveal that it contained a reasonably thin, opalescent black cardboard box. Her name was written across the lid in dark red, the letters much more elegant than she would have expected of a male, even Black.

"Huh," she muttered, lifting the box and turning it this way and that, as if she could determine what was inside it from its outward appearance. She knew that on some level, she was still waiting for Black to jump out of nowhere and announce that he'd really been joking, or inform her that it was all a prank and please could he watch her open it because he really wanted to see the elephant ears sprout so could he _please_? But she sat for several minutes, staring at the gift, and Black didn't appear.

Experimentally, she flipped the gift over to check the bottom. There was no noise, but Lily thought she felt a soft thump against the lid of the box, barely perceptible, and she wondered wildly what kind of present Black would give that wouldn't make noise. It didn't seem the sort of thing he'd do, really-- he didn't know how to be quiet himself, why would he give someone a quiet gift?

She turned it back over, and stared some more at her name on the lid. Really, it looked quite pretty that way, shimmering like the rest of the box, with the four letters sort of flowing into each other wherever they touched; she wondered if he'd done the calligraphy himself.

"Probably he used magic," she scoffed, feeling peculiarly disappointed at the realization. A moment later, she decided that now, she really _was_ just being a coward and stalling. Mentally cursing her own nervousness, she opened the box and found--

A white pair of _fur mittens_, bound together by a _diamond bracelet_, the sparkling band almost blending in with the pale ermine.

"Oh, my," Lily breathed, staring at the objects nestled in the gold and crimson tissue paper. Almost speechless with shock, and some quite inappropriate delight as well, she murmured, "Oh, oh _my_."

"What is that?" inquired a curious voice from behind her.

Evidently, James Potter had followed her out of dinner, probably with the intent of numbing her mind with some more of those smiles.

Drat and blast.

Slamming the lid back on the box and shoving the whole thing back into her book bag, Lily whirled around to face the owner of the voice. "Oh, it's-- it's-- it's nothing, James. Just-- a gift."

"Bit early, isn't it?" Potter mutter, his tone still curious, as he craned his neck trying to see around her. She was just beginning to panic and wonder how on Earth she could divert his attention, when she saw his expression freeze and his gaze dart up to her face -- his glasses slipped a bit down his nose, but he didn't seem to notice. His eyes were very, very wide.

"What?" she demanded, afraid she hadn't closed the box properly and he'd seen Black's gift. That was when she identified the expression on his face as not just shock, but _awe_.

Oh, he really had seen it, hadn't he? And somehow he'd know it was from Black, and she was about to be the cause of a rift in the most obnoxiously loyal friendship in the whole history of Britain, and she hadn't even _meant_ to. She steeled herself for the accusation she was sure he was about to fling at her.

But instead he gasped, "You called me James."

"I--" Lily blinked, momentarily thrown off balance, and found herself whispering, "Haven't I done that before?"

He shook his head slowly, still looking at her with that unsettling mix of astonishment and felicity. "No..."

"Oh." Lily chanced a smile at him, her mind on the gift now stashed once more in her bag, since the imagined crisis had apparently been averted. She wondered if she'd ever get a chance to wear the bracelet... "I really should."

One of Potter's eyebrows lifted slightly. "Beg pardon?"

"Ah-- use your name more often," she answered, as hurriedly as she could when her mind was really still several feet away from their conversation. Absently, she added, "I _really_ should."

"You won't catch _me_ complaining," he assured her, smiling widely.

"Of course not, James," she agreed, with a little nod that was mostly just to banish from her mind all thoughts of warm mittens and dazzling jewelry.

His smile, to her amazement, grew wider, and she realized that she'd done it a second time. "Oh," she whispered, biting her lip. She hadn't meant to say that.

Even if it did feel strangely nice on her lips.

"That's twice in less than ten minutes," Potter informed her, as if she might not have noticed -- though how she could _help_ noticing that she'd neglected to use his surname more often in the course of the previous few minutes than she ever had in the entirety of the last six years combined, she had no idea.

"I know, James," she snapped, turning her back on him. When she realized that she had actually just done it _again_ -- this made twice in as many minutes! -- she crumbled up the gold paper from Black's gift and roughly crammed it into her bag. She didn't dare look at Potter, because she was quite sure that the expression of delight on his face would be blinding.

On the other hand, it was a face that did delight particularly well...

Lily glanced over her shoulder, and sure enough, Potter was beaming so intensely that she almost wondered if it was healthy.

"You're glowing," she said, the corner of her mouth turning up wryly. "Would that be the Reindeer in you showing its antlers, James?"

Dash it all, there went her stupid mouth with his name, _again_.

He didn't seem to have paid any attention to anything she'd said, because he asked, "Is that my Christmas present?"

Which threw her for rather a loop, she had to admit. "Is what your Christmas present?" she asked, frowning lightly, confused.

"Saying my name so much?"

"Don't be stupid, James," she scoffed, whirling around and shouldering her bag. She took a step toward the doors, only belatedly realizing that it was also a step closer to him.

Potter laughed happily. "You're doing it again!"

"Yes," hissed Lily, annoyed with herself. Her book bag slid off her shoulder and dangled from her wrist. "Really, I just-- don't know what's come over me, James. I'm not--"

"Six!"

She stopped, blinking, and then could have smacked herself because he was right; she'd just slipped a _sixth_ time. What was _wrong_ with her today? She blinked again, and realized that he was _much_ nearer than he'd been a minute ago. Had she moved closer? No, so he must have--

"Lily..." He took two more steps, and he was less than a foot away from her. She noticed, for the first time, that his mouth was _exactly_ at her eye level. She wondered how she'd ever avoided catching that, considering that it was such a very _nice_ mouth. Really, the curve of his bottom lip was just wonderful, with the barest hint of a pout. A kissable mouth-- a _very_ kissable mouth.

Potter was not supposed to have such a kissable mouth.

And even if he _were_, she wasn't supposed to notice it.-- It was those diamonds, she decided. Seeing them had made her positively loopy.

Which would explain why she was still gazing at Potter's mouth, and even going so far as to lick her lips.

"I know I don't have any mistletoe," he murmured seriously, and she quickly glanced up, to find his eyes on hers.

_Oh, damn_, she thought, surprised by the force of her own disappointment. Then she felt a rush of embarrassment, because she was sure he must have noticed that she was staring at his lips.

He continued, "But, in a second, I'm going to kiss you anyway.-- And my Christmas present to you is that I'll actually let you stop me. If you want."

What Lily _intended_ to say was 'I want,' and what she _wished_ to say was 'I don't want,' but all that came out was an embarrassingly breathless "_James_."

He seemed to take that as permission, because he leaned down and brushed his mouth to hers, gently and briefly. He pulled away, his cheeks flushed and his eyes half-closed, but a moment later their lips were pressed together again. It took Lily a moment to realize that she'd been the one to initiate the second kiss, and several more moments to convince herself to stop.

Eventually, she stepped back, and peeked from under her eyelashes to see his reaction. His eyes were all the way open now, impressively widely, and fixed on her. There was even more color in his cheeks, they were almost as red as her hair; his glasses were askew, and yes, they were what had been pressing uncomfortably into her cheekbone a second ago. Most importantly, his lips were parted, swollen and slightly red -- she must have been kissing him more enthusiastically than she'd thought.

And she wanted to do it _again_.

She cleared her throat, but couldn't think of what to say. 'Kiss me, you idiot,' just didn't seem appropriate, somehow. So she settled for "Um..."

James was silent for several seconds, and then he grinned, grabbing her hands. "Come on."

"What?" she asked, reflexively dragging her heels, and attempting to pull her hands from his. She had absolutely no idea what was going on or where he thought he was taking them. "Where?"

"There's some mistletoe at the North end of the West fourth floor corridor," explained James, persistently tugging on her arms by the hands he refused to relinquish.

Oh, he had such lovely warm hands.

There was a wonderful roguish light in his eyes, which went very well with his proud, delighted smile. Lily couldn't help herself, she sighed gently and wrapped her fingers just a little more tightly under his. All thoughts of fur mittens, diamond bracelets and disconcerting young men named Black completely wiped from her mind.

James was taking her to find some mistletoe. How delicious! Hadn't she been wishing for some just a moment ago? After all, he had the kind of mouth that mistletoe had been invented for, she was absolutely certain.

Lily stopped resisting and followed him out of the library, but since she'd been in the West fourth floor corridor just before changing course and going to the library and hadn't noticed any such thing, couldn't help asking, "How do you know?"

"Because Sirius put it there this afternoon," James answered, still grinning widely, and looking very grateful to his friend.

Out of the corner of her eye, she suddenly thought she caught sight of a flash of black hair disappearing down an intersecting corridor, long scarlet scarf fanning behind someone as he ran away, and her mind spun until she couldn't see James any more, just the jittery expression on Black's face the last time she'd seen him, standing at the other end of a fourth floor corridor, holding a golden package and waiting for her as the sun set next to them...

Lily's book bag fell to the ground with a dull thump.


End file.
